For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, winter has wrapped its dark, frost-glittered cloaks around us and very soon it will be New Year's Eve again.

I don't believe in New Year Resolutions - certainly not when there are still half eaten boxes of Christmas chocolate to be taken care of - but I do believe in magic, and I have a hunch that you might, too.

Recently I got to thinking - why do I do what I do?

Why do I paint these crazy people from my imagination, and write stories about them?

And I figured that the answer might have something to do with magic, and about the joy of sharing that magic with people like you.

I'm not just talking about the 'abracadabra' kind of magic, even though I can't get enough of that! I'm also talking the kind of magic that veils everything around us, if you take the time to look.

I'm pretty sure you must have seen it - or at least glimpsed it for yourself.

That sparkle in someone's eye, the smell of your favourite flower, the silvery shine of the moon on a black sea at night - that giddy feeling when you look up at a gaudy fairground ferris wheel screaming past your head, or the shiver down your spine when you hear an amazing piece of music.

I love all of this stuff, and I want to get more involved with it.

I want to roll up my sleeves and really get stuck in to see what sort of treasure I might be able to mine.

But I'm going to need your help!

Because personally - for me anyway - there's no point in discovering or thinking about something inspiring, beautiful, challenging or magical (in other words, creating a work of art) unless you have someone to share it all with.

And I'd love to share it with you.

Beginning on January 1st, 2017, I would like to create a daily email for you that will report on the inspiration, creativity and magic that I have found - both the sparkly kind and the scary kind.

I've no idea where this path might take me or what I might encounter along the way - but I'd like to invite you to join me on this journey, because I'd love to have your company, your feedback, to hear what your thoughts and your own magical experiences might be.

And because you are my raison d'étre!

If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, click the link below... and I'll see you in your inbox in the new year!